Europe & Central Asia

2014

New York, December 23, 2014--The Belarusian parliament adopted amendments to a restrictive media law last week, and President Aleksandr Lukashenko signed them on December 20, according to news reports. The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by the broad and vaguely worded provisions of the law, which extend restrictions on the traditional press to the online media. The amendments will be implemented on January 1.

Syria is the world’s deadliest country for journalists for the third year in a row. International journalists were killed at a higher rate in 2014 than in recent years. A CPJ special report by Shazdeh Omari

In 2014, at least 60 journalists and 11 media workers were killed in relation to their work, according to CPJ research. Local and international journalists died covering conflicts, including in Syria, Iraq, and Ukraine, while many others were murdered reporting on corruption and organized crime in their own countries.

Here, CPJ remembers some of the journalists who gave their lives to bring us this year's headlines.

More than 200 journalists are imprisoned for their work for the third consecutive year, reflecting a global surge in authoritarianism. China is the world’s worst jailer of journalists in 2014. A CPJ special report by Shazdeh Omari

Aleksandr Alesin, journalist with the Minsk-based independent newspaper Belorusy i rynok (Belarusians and the Market), was released from prison on December 10, 2014, but banned from traveling outside Belarus pending investigation, local and international press reported.

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New York, December 14, 2014--The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns today's raids on media outlets in which police detained journalists and media workers on politicized anti-state charges. Among those detained today were Ekrem Dumanlı, editor-in-chief of Zaman, one of Turkey's largest dailies, and Hidayet Karaca, chairman of the Samanyolu Broadcast Group, reports said.

New York, December 8, 2014--The Committee to Protect Journalists today called for the immediate release of journalist Aleksandr Alesin, who according to news reports is being held by the Belarusian national security service, known as the KGB.

New York, December 5, 2014--An Azerbaijani court in Baku today ordered the imprisonment of award-winning investigative journalist Khadija Ismayilova for two months pending trial after a local man accused her of urging him to commit suicide, according to news reports. The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the ruling and calls on authorities in Azerbaijan to stop their prosecution of Ismayilova, who also faces charges of libel in a separate case.

"We call on Azerbaijani authorities to stop gagging reporters through trumped-up charges and arrests, and immediately release Khadija Ismayilova," said Muzaffar Suleymanov, CPJ's Europe and Central Asia research associate. "The politicized nature of the arrest is obvious--an award-winning reporter is being harassed for her work in Azerbaijan."

A year ago today, the Committee to Protect Journalists reported on the first mass assaults on press freedom in Ukraine, after police were ordered to disperse protesters in the capital, Kiev, and other cities. At least 51 journalists--including local and international reporters--were attacked by police and protesters while covering the early days of the standoff that led to the ousting of President Viktor Yanukovych three months later.

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This week, members of UNESCO's International Programme for the Development of Communication will meet to discuss the director general's biannual report, which examines the cases of nearly 600 journalists killed around the world from January 1, 2006 to December 31, 2013. The report, and lacklustre response from member states who had been asked to provide status updates to the cases, highlights why the campaign to end impunity is so vital.

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CPJ calls on Didier Reynders, Belgium's foreign minister, to use his country's presidency at the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe--the largest pan-European human rights watchdog--to defend press freedom in Europe, and address violations by members states. CPJ's letter highlights press freedom abuses in Azerbaijan, Hungary, Russia, Turkey, and Ukraine.

Last month, a delegation from the Committee to Protect Journalists and the International Press Institute met with senior Turkish officials, including President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, and Justice Minister Bekir Bozdağ.

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New York, November 6, 2014--The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the harassment by Azerbaijani officials of the family of Gulnara Akhundova, a regional expert with the Denmark-based press freedom group International Media Support (IMS). Akhundova's 67-year-old mother was interrogated on Wednesday by prosecutors in Baku who raided her apartment the same day, according to local press reports.

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"With the Islamic state offensive, the Ebola epidemic and Ukraine, Hungary is not on anyone's mind in Europe," mused one of our interlocutors during the Committee to Protect Journalists' fact-finding mission in Budapest in October. "Viktor Orbán has really nothing to fear from Brussels."

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Russian actor Mikhail Porechenkov has joined basketball star Dennis Rodman, who declared North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un his best friend, and Jennifer Lopez who sang "Happy Birthday Mr. President" to the authoritarian leader of Turkmenistan, on the list of celebrities who have made human rights faux pas.

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A delegation from the Committee to Protect Journalists, led by board member Kati Marton, traveled to Hungary in October on CPJ's first fact-finding and advocacy mission to an EU member state. We went there in response to concerning reports of deteriorating conditions for the press, and met dozens of journalists, media lawyers, managers, rights defenders, and policy analysts. Those we spoke to described an atmosphere of fear and self-censorship, and how critical reporting and alternative views are suppressed through a variety of means, including legal and economic measures that stifle and discourage independent coverage.

But there were signs of hope. Enterprising journalists are defying authorities' attempts to interfere with editorial policies and silence sensitive stories. The editorial team of one such news website, Atlatszo--the name means "transparent"--specializes in investigative journalism and advocating for information access. In Budapest, CPJ visited Atlatszo's offices, housed in an old department store.

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New York, October 30, 2014--A court in Azerbaijan today sentenced Khalid Garayev, a reporter for the embattled opposition newspaper Azadliq and the technical director of "Azerbaijani Hour," Azadliq's online TV program, to almost a month in prison on charges of hooliganism and disobeying the police, according to news reports.

On the Buda side of the River Danube stands the glass and steel headquarters of the thriving German-owned entertainment channel RTL. On the Pest side of the Hungarian capital, tucked in a corner of a converted department store, lies the cramped office of struggling online news outlet Atlatszo.

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New York, October 24, 2014--The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns today's conviction and sentencing to prison of French documentary filmmakers Thomas Dandois and Valentine Bourrat on charges of breaking immigration laws in Indonesia. The two were sentenced to two months and 15 days in prison and are expected to be released next week because of time served, according to news reports citing their lawyer.

A coalition of international press freedom groups, including the Committee to Protect Journalists, today called on Azerbaijani authorities to lift the travel ban and end the politicized prosecution of Khadija Ismayilova, an award-winning investigative reporter. In the past week authorities in Baku detained Ismayilova upon her arrival from Strasbourg where she had traveled to brief European politicians on Azerbaijan's human rights record; put her on trial over accusations of libel against a resident; and barred her from attending a pro-democracy forum in the Czech Republic, alleging that she was a witness in an unspecified criminal inquiry.

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New York, October 10, 2014--The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the criminal libel charges filed against Khadija Ismayilova, an award-winning investigative journalist in Azerbaijan, and calls on authorities to drop the charges immediately.

"They raided our offices as if we were mobsters. The irony of the situation is that the Hungarian police rarely raid mobsters with such force," said an employee at one of two NGOs whose Budapest offices were stormed by about 20 officers of the Central Investigations Office--Hungary's version of the FBI--on September 8.

"The European Commission expressed serious concern about developments in the area of rule of law and fundamental rights (in Turkey)." It is progress report season in Brussels. As every year in early October, the commissioner in charge of enlargement unveils documents that judge the progress of all candidate countries in adopting European Union (EU) laws and standards, and Turkey is at the forefront.

Reuters editor-at-large Harry Evans had a question for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan: Would he be willing to meet with a delegation from the Committee to Protect Journalists and the International Press Institute (IPI) when it visited Turkey?

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New York, September 24, 2014--Kremlin-controlled authorities in Crimea should stop harassing the independent regional broadcaster ATR and allow the outlet to cover the news free from reprisal, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. ATR is the only regional broadcaster of the ethnic Crimean Tatar minority.

Journalists investigating the deaths of Russian soldiers that news reports claimed were killed during Russia's alleged involvement in Ukraine's conflict have been targeted in a series of attacks since late August, according to a press freedom group. Russia has denied that its soldiers were involved in the conflict, but journalists who spoke to the Committee to Protect Journalists said the attacks, mostly by unknown assailants, began after they tried to investigate the mysterious deaths of Russian soldiers.

September 18, 2014, New York--The Islamic State militant group released a video today that shows John Cantlie, a British freelance journalist kidnapped in Syria in 2012, making what he said would be the first of a series of statements, according to news reports. Cantlie's abduction in Syria nearly two years ago was not previously reported by CPJ and other groups at the request of his family.

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New York, September 11, 2014--The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns today's raid by Ukrainian security agents on the independent newspaper Vesti as well as moves by Ukrainian authorities to bar entry to dozens of Russian journalists and media workers.

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New York, September 9, 2014--Independent reporter and blogger Elizaveta Bogutskaya has fled Crimea after authorities in the peninsula raided her home on Monday, confiscated notebooks and other reporting equipment, and detained Bogutskaya for six hours over allegations of extremist activity, according to news reports.

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New York, September 3, 2014--Russian authorities and news outlets reported today that Andrei Stenin, the 33-year-old Russian photojournalist for the state-owned news agency Rossiya Segodnya, who went missing in Ukraine in early August, was killed in the country's Donetsk region.

"We condemn the killing of Andrei Stenin, which calls attention once again to the dangers of covering the conflict in Ukraine from any side," CPJ Europe and Central Asia Program Coordinator Nina Ognianova said. "We urge Ukrainian authorities to do their utmost to conduct an effective probe into the circumstances of his death, and call on pro-Russia separatists to allow investigators access to the territory where Stenin was reportedly found."

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New York, August 29, 2014--The Committee to Protect Journalists strongly condemns the savage beating of Ilgar Nasibov, an independent journalist and human rights defender based in the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic (NAR)--a mountainous exclave of Azerbaijan where the practice of journalism is severely restricted.

New York, August 20, 2014--On Tuesday, Ukrainian Minister of Internal Affairs Arsen Avakov ordered cable operators in the countryto stop airing 14 Russian TV channels in an effort to curb Russia's war propaganda, according to news reports. The Interior Ministry cited Russia's decision to ban Ukrainian TV channels in Crimea as a justification for the order, as well as Ukraine's right to "defend its information space from Russia's informational aggression," according to Anton Gerashchenko, Avakov's adviser.

On July 31, 26-year-old reporter, blogger, and civil activist Timur Kuashev disappeared in Nalchik, the regional capital of Russia's North Caucasus republic of Kabardino-Balkariya. When such news breaks in the volatile region--where journalists and human rights defenders are slaughtered regularly and with impunity--families prepare for the worst. The next day, a body resembling Kuashev's turned up in a forested area on the outskirts of Nalchik. The journalist's parents confirmed that it was indeed their son, and a nightmare for every parent unfolded--an autopsy, a preliminary investigation, and waiting for results that would show how the young, athletic man had suddenly died of what officials concluded was heart-related problems.

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Brussels, August 13, 2014--The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns repeated cyberattacks on Paris-based news website Rue89and the harassment of members of its staff and their families since the site published a profile of an Internet hacker last month.

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New York, August 12, 2014--The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Ukrainian authorities to clarify the status of Andrei Stenin, the Russian photojournalist for the state news agency Rossiya Segodnya (previously RIA Novosti) who was reported missing on August 5 in eastern Ukraine. According to Russian news reports, Anton Gerashchenko, adviser to the head of Ukraine's Ministry of Internal Affairs, said Stenin had likely been detained by Ukraine's security service, or the SBU. Earlier, the SBU had denied holding Stenin. Gerashchenko also said that Stenin may be accused of "aiding and glorification of terrorism," the reports said. A short time later, Gerashchenko told Rossiya Segodnya that his comments had been taken out of context and that he was unaware of Stenin's whereabouts.

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New York, August 11, 2014--The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned about the safety of Andrei Stenin, Russian photojournalist for the state news agency Rossiya Segodnya (previously RIA Novosti). The agency said it had not heard from Stenin since August 5, when he was reporting on the conflict in eastern Ukraine, including from the cities of Donetsk and Sloviansk. An unnamed source cited by Rossiya Segodnya said Stenin had been abducted by Ukrainian militia and was in the custody of the Ukrainian security service (SBU) in the city of Zaporozhye. The SBU denied the allegation, according to Rossiya Segodnya.

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New York, August 8, 2014--The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by comments made by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan against a journalist on Thursday. At an election rally in southern Turkey, Erdoğan called Amberin Zaman, local correspondent for The Economist, "a shameless militant disguised under the name of a journalist," and urged her to "know your place," the Economistreported. The prime minister was reacting to remarks Zaman made when she interviewed an opposition leader on TV the day before. Pro-government supporters took to social media and condemned Zaman's comments.

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New York, August 8, 2014--The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Azerbaijani authorities to stop harassing the Baku-based media freedom group Institute for Reporters' Freedom and Safety. Detectives with Azerbaijan's Prosecutor General's Office raided the IRFS premises today, the local press reported. A journalist who was at the raid told CPJ that the detectives confiscated some of their equipment, including computers. The whereabouts of IRFS's director, Emin Huseynov, are unknown, the local press said. Two days ago, authorities stopped Huseynov from exiting Azerbaijan when he tried to travel to Turkey for medical treatment, according to the local news website Contact.

New York, July 28, 2014--In recent days in Ukraine, an international journalist was wounded in a car crash caused by separatists' gunfire, a local journalist was detained by separatists, a Russian reporter for Bloomberg News was briefly detained by a Ukrainian army unit, and a foreign journalist was expelled by Ukrainian authorities, according to press freedom groups and local and international media.

"There are no [independent] Ukrainian journalists left in Donetsk," said Aleksei Matsuka, chief editor of the regional news website Novosti Donbassa (News of Donbass). "They have fled the region since pro-Russia separatists started targeting and kidnapping reporters," Matsuka told CPJ during our brief meeting in Kiev.

On Wednesday, we reported that in Ukraine this week, at least two journalists had gone missing, while pro-Russia separatists abducted a fixer and briefly detained a reporter. Also, the self-declared Donetsk People's Republic said it was banning journalists from the conflict area. We noted that press freedom violations "are happening at dizzying speed in eastern Ukraine."

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New York, July 23, 2014--The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns a series of recent anti-press violations in Ukraine's eastern region of Donetsk. In the past two days, at least two journalists have gone missing, while pro-Russia separatists abducted a fixer and briefly detained a reporter, according to news reports and press freedom and human rights groups. The moves come as the self-declared Donetsk People's Republic today banned journalists from the conflict area.

New York, July 21, 2014--Pro-Russia separatists in eastern Ukraine should stop threatening and obstructing journalists from reporting on the Malaysia Airlines plane crash, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

Russian authorities arrested Yevgeny Agarkov, a reporter with the Ukrainian television station 1+1, on July 18, 2014, and accused him of working in Russia without a proper accreditation, according to news reports. Agarkov had traveled there to cover the controversial prosecution and trial of Ukrainian pilot Nadezhda Savchenko, whom Russia accused of involvement in the killing by mortar fire of reporter Igor Kornelyuk and sound engineer Anton Voloshin, both with the Russian state-owned broadcaster VGTRK.

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The state-run Anadolu news agency reported on July 10, 2014, that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan asked the Ankara Public Prosecutor's Office to launch a criminal investigation against Bülent Keneş, editor-in-chief of the English-language daily newspaper Today's Zaman, on charges of "insulting a public official."

The British government's attempt to rush through a bill on data retention before the House of Commons summer recess next week has run into opposition--not from members across the aisle but from Internet companies, civil liberty defenders, and lawyers, who say the law would extend the authorities' already vast snooping capabilities.

This month, the prosecutor-general of Kyrgyzstan, Aida Salyanova, told the Committee to Protect Journalists that her office is working hard to fight corruption and ensure transparency in government activities.

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Erol Özkoray, Turkish journalist and author, appeared in court for the third time on June 18, 2014, on charges of insulting the Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in his book, The Gezi Phenomenon, according to news reports. The book covered the popular anti-government protests that erupted in Turkey in 2013 after the government announced its decision to turn a park in downtown Istanbul into a shopping mall.

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On June 23, 2014, Hasnian Kazim, a German journalist who covered Turkey for the German magazine Der Spiegel, told the daily Hürriyet that he had temporarily fled the country after receiving online death threats.

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On June 12, 2014, Mehmet Düzenli, a cartoonist, was taken into custody to begin serving a three-month prison term he was given after being convicted of insulting controversial religious leader and TV figure Adnan Oktar (also known as Harun Yahya) in his drawings. The daily pro-opposition newspaper Cumhuriyetreported that Düzenli was convicted by the 2nd Penal Court of Peacein Serik, Antalya province, on April 10, 2014. Düzenli is serving his term at Alanya Prison in the Alanya district of Antalya, the reports said.

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"This is a new wave of clampdowns by the government--they want to have another four-year term with even less critical media than before," said Szabolcs, a 21-year-old economics student, one of thousands of people who marched in the streets of Budapest in June, chanting "Free Country, Free Press!" The demonstrations were in reaction to several restrictive measures pushed through by Hungary's re-elected government led by the center-right Fidesz party, headed by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

In the course of a couple of hours on Wednesday, France was rocked by two judicial decisions with profound political repercussions for French politics and the press' right to publish. Just as a baffled public learned that former President Nicolas Sarkozy had been put under formal investigation for corruption and influence-peddling, France's highest court, the Cour de Cassation, upheld a July 2013 lower court ruling ordering the muckraking news website Mediapart to take down 72 articles related to "l'affaire Bettencourt." It's a fight destined to continue, with a founder of Mediapart vowing to take the free-press case to the European Court of Human Rights.

On August 1, Russia will significantly tighten its grip on blogging and social media conversations and will acquire expanded powers to block Internet services originating abroad. The new authorities, approved by Russia's parliament in April, buttress existing regulations that have already been used to block several independent news sites, some of which reported on the political upheaval in Ukraine in a way that apparently drew the government's ire.

Nearly eight years after Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya was gunned down in an elevator near her apartment, authorities appear to have made little progress identifying the mastermind behind her murder. Although five men were sentenced to lengthy prison terms on June 9 for their roles in the slaying of the Novaya Gazeta journalist, her family and friends say Russian officials are dragging their feet in finding the real culprit.

New York, July 1, 2014--The Committee to Protect Journalists deplores the detention of at least three Ukrainian journalists by pro-Russia separatists in eastern Ukraine and calls for their immediate release.

Prime Minister Renzi: As Italy today takes the rotating presidency of the European Union, we call on your government to abolish criminal libel and bring Italian laws in line with European and international standards.

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New York, June 30, 2014--The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the killing Sunday in the Donetsk region of Anatoly Klyan, a cameraman with the Russian state-owned broadcaster Pervy Kanal (Channel One). Klyan, 68, died at a local hospital where he was treated for a gun wound to his abdomen, local and international press reported.

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New York, June 27, 2014--The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns continued pressure on the media in the eastern Ukraine region of Donetsk and calls on separatists to allow journalists to report the news without fear of reprisal.

New York, June 17, 2014--A Russian journalist and a media worker died from injuries they sustained in mortar fire in the eastern Ukrainian city of Lugansk today, according to Russian and international media reports. Igor Kornelyuk, correspondent for the state-owned broadcaster VGTRK, and Anton Voloshin, a sound engineer, were reporting on the deadly clashes between the Ukrainian army and pro-Russia separatists, reports said.

New York, June 12, 2014--The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by Bishkek City Court's refusal to open a new investigation into the case of Azimjon Askarov, a journalist and human rights defender who has been imprisoned in Kyrgyzstan since 2010 in retaliation for his work exposing wrongdoing. The court scrapped today an earlier decision by a lower Bishkek court, which had ruled that the journalist's case should be reinvestigated. Askarov's lawyer has said he will appeal the decision to the Supreme Court, reports said.

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New York, June 9, 2014--The Committee to Protect Journalists said it is encouraged by today's progress in solving the 2006 slaying of prominent independent journalist Anna Politkovskaya, but noted that the mastermind still walks free. A Moscow court sentenced five defendants to lengthy prison sentences for carrying out the murder almost eight years ago.

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New
York, June 6, 2014--A local newsroom was burned down on Thursday in Donetsk
region in eastern Ukraine and a telecommunication company stopped broadcasting
content from six Ukrainian TV channels, citing threats, according to news reports and press freedom groups. In both cases,
separatists with the self-declared Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) were believed
to be the perpetrators, the reports said.

New York, June 5, 2014--The Committee to Protect Journalists
welcomes the declaration
today by leaders of the Group of Seven leading industrial nations that democratic
governance and human rights should be integral to the post-2015 development
agenda. The United Nations is seeking
agreement on a broad set of sustainable development objectives to replace the Millennium Development Goals,
which expire in 2015 and which made no mention of political or civil rights.
The new goals will provide a framework for donor aid and thus influence
priorities for years to come.

Google has taken its first
public steps to comply with a troubling ruling by the European Court of
Justice establishing a so-called "right to be forgotten" throughout the
European Union. The ruling, on May 13, requires that search companies consider
individuals' demands to remove Internet links that reference them, and to give
those requests priority over the public's broader information needs. The links
may be required to be erased even if the content is truthful, lawfully
published, and causes no prejudice to the individual.

New York, June 3, 2014--The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by
today's reports that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Parliament called
CNN journalist Ivan Watson a "flunky" and said the foreign press was "literally
executing their duties as agents" in connection with the coverage of protests
in Istanbul. The move follows the brief detention and manhandling by police of
Watson and multiple Turkish journalists on Saturday, according to news reports.

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New
York, June 2, 2014--At least five
journalists in Crimea and mainland Ukraine were detained today, two of whom
were still being held, by Russian authorities and pro-Russia separatists, according
to news reports. The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the
detentions and urges all sides of the crisis in Ukraine to allow journalists to
do their job without fear of reprisal.

CPJ board member María Teresa Ronderos
and CPJ Senior Program Coordinator Carlos Lauría traveled to Brasilia this
month to launch a new special report, "Halftime
for the Brazilian press," and met with Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, as
well as other high-level government officials. CPJ also presented President Rousseff
with the report's recommendations.

Brazil is home to a vibrant investigative press, but
journalists are murdered regularly and their killers go free, CPJ's report
found. Brazil is the 11th deadliest country in the world for journalists, and
at least 10 have been killed in direct reprisal for their work since President
Rousseff came to power, CPJ research shows.

A new document on freedom
of expression and opinion, adopted May 12 by the 28 foreign ministers of the
European Union, presses nearly all the right buttons. Drawing its inspiration
from international human rights norms as well as from the EU's treaties and its
charter of fundamental rights, the document reaffirms the role of freedom of
opinion and expression as "an essential foundation for democracy, rule of law,
peace, stability, sustainable inclusive development, and participation in
public affairs." It also makes a strong case for free and independent
journalism. The ministers committed the EU and member states to the defense of
journalists' freedom and safety, and endorsed watchdog journalism as a decisive
factor in "uncovering abuses of power, shining a light on corruption, and
questioning received opinion."

New
York, May 27, 2014--On Saturday, Italian photojournalist Andrea Rocchelli and his
Russian interpreter and fixer, Andrei Mironov, were killed in mortar fire
outside the eastern city of Sloviansk, according to regional and international press reports. A
French photojournalist, William Roguelon, was also wounded in the attack,
reports said.

New York, May 23, 2014--Several Russian journalists were barred from
entering Ukraine this past week, ahead of Sunday's presidential vote, according
to news reports. The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the move and
calls on Ukrainian authorities to allow all journalists to carry out their job
without harassment.

New
York, May 20, 2014--A Moscow City Court jury today convicted five individuals for
planning, participating, and carrying out the 2006 murder of Novaya
Gazeta
journalist Anna Politkovskaya, local and international press reported.
Three of the defendants had been acquitted in an earlier trial. A mastermind
was not named in today's verdict.

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New
York, May 19, 2014--Ukrainian authorities are holding two foreign journalists,
while five other journalists were interrogated in Crimea by Russian authorities
over the weekend, according to news reports.

New
York, May 15, 2014--The eight-year prison term given today to a journalist in
Azerbaijan is a breach of the country's declared commitments to press freedom,
the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Parviz Hashimli is the editor
of the independent news website Moderator
and a reporter for the independent newspaper Bizim Yol.

San Francisco, May 13, 2014
-- The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned by today's ruling
of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), which holds that Internet
search engines can be compelled to remove "inadequate, irrelevant or no longer
relevant" links about an individual, even if the content at the link is true
and legally posted.

On Wednesday, Azerbaijan will assume chairmanship of the Council
of Europe Committee of Ministers. The chairmanship process is automatic; the
position is rotated every six months among all of the council's members, in
alphabetical order. But Azerbaijan's chairmanship has proven more problematic
than most, as it comes at a time when the country's fulfillment of its Council
of Europe obligations is at its worst.

New
York, May 12, 2014--Local and international journalists covering the crisis in Ukraine
have been assaulted and arbitrarily detained in the past week, according to
news reports and a local press freedom organization. At least one was attacked while
covering a contested referendum Sunday on autonomy for the east of the country,
the reports said.

New
York, May 12, 2014--The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the release from jailtoday
of five Turkish journalists--Nurettin Fırat, Yüksel Genç, Turabi Kişin, Ertuş
Bozkurt, and Ramazan Pekgöz. The journalists were arrested
in December 2011 as part of the Turkish government's crackdown on pro-Kurdish
news outlets and were accused of membership or participation in the banned
Union of Communities in Kurdistan party, or KCK. The journalists are under a travel
ban and still face charges, according to reports.

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New York, May 9, 2014--The Committee to Protect Journalists
welcomes the release
from jail on Thursday of Fusün Erdoğan, former general manager of Özgür
Radyo, and Bayram Namaz, a columnist for the weekly Atılım, and urges Turkish authorities to remove restrictions on
their travel and lift their prison sentences on appeal.

New
York, May 5, 2014--At least three journalists were shot over the weekend and others
assaulted while covering deadly clashes between pro-Russia activists and their
opponents in Odessa, southern Ukraine, according to news reports and a local
press freedom group. The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Ukrainian
authorities to stand by their declared commitment to ensure
journalists' safety and hold those responsible to account.

New York, May 2, 2014--The
Committee to Protect Journalists condemns today's detention of several journalists--from CBS television, BuzzFeed,
and Sky News--in Sloviansk, where pro-Russia separatists have for weeks harassed,
obstructed, and detained journalists covering the crisis in eastern Ukraine. All
of the journalists were released after being interrogated for hours, news reports
said.

New York, April 30,
2014--The Committee to Protect Journalists is disturbed by reports in Turkey's pro-government media that made false
claims about CPJ. The reports said CPJ made a statement on April 18 saying
Turkey holds only 15 journalists behind bars. CPJ did not issue a statement.

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New York, April 30,
2014--The Committee to Protect Journalists commends today's decision by
Oktyabrsky District Court in Kyrgyzstan's capital, Bishkek, to renew the investigation into the case of imprisoned journalist and rights
defender Azimjon Askarov, who was imprisoned
in 2010 in retaliation for his work exposing official wrongdoing.

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New
York, April 29, 2014--At least two journalists who traveled to eastern Ukraine have
been reported missing in the past week, while at least four journalists have
been attacked, according to news reports. The Committee to Protect Journalists
is alarmed by the targeting of journalists and media outlets in Ukraine and
calls on all parties to allow them to work freely.

On World Press Freedom Day, CPJ calls for the release of all jailed journalists

By Shazdeh Omari/CPJ News Editor

New York, April 29, 2014—Uzbek editor Muhammad Bekjanov has been in jail for 15 years, one of the longest imprisonments of journalists worldwide. Prominent Iranian journalist Siamak Ghaderi was imprisoned in 2010 and has been beaten and whipped in custody. Vietnamese blogger Nguyen Van Hai, serving a 12-year jail term, could barely walk or talk during a prison visit in July 2013, his family said.

New York, April 25,
2014--The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the release of two
journalists in eastern Ukraine and calls for the release of a third journalist
who has not been heard from since April 15. Sergei Lefter, reporter for the Warsaw-based Open Dialogue Foundation, is reportedly in custody of pro-Russian separatists led by Vyacheslav Ponomaryov, the self-proclaimed "people's
mayor" of Sloviansk.

Dear Ambassadors Kamau and Kőrösi: I am writing to you in your capacity as the co-chairmen of the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals. Your work and the recommendations of your group will help frame the discussion in the coming year as United Nations member states seek to agree a set of objectives to succeed the Millennium Development Goals beyond 2015. We at the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) believe it is vital that your report to the UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon later this year include freedom of expression and access to information and independent media as part of the post-2015 agenda.

New
York, April 23, 2014--Three local and international journalists are missing or being
held hostage in eastern Ukraine, while unidentified assailantsburned
down the offices of a newspaper. The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on
Ukrainian authorities to ensure the safety of journalists covering the crisis.

New York, April 22, 2014--The Committee to Protect
Journalists is concerned about the safety of Simon
Ostrovsky, a reporter with the U.S.-based global news channel VICE News,
who is being held in the eastern Ukrainian city of Sloviansk. Ostrovsky is in
the custody of pro-Russian separatists led by self-proclaimed "people's mayor"
Vyacheslav Ponomaryov, according to news
reports.

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New York, April 22, 2014--The Committee to Protect
Journalists today called on President Vladimir Putin to veto a new bill that would subject
popular bloggers to the same restrictions as traditional media in Russia. The
bill was approved by Russia's parliament, the State Duma, in a final reading
today.

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New York, April 21, 2014--A court in Baku today ordered journalist
Rauf Mirkadyrov, Turkey correspondent for the independent Azerbaijani newspaper
Zerkalo, to jail for three months
pending trial on espionage charges after he was deported from Turkey, news
reports said.

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New York, April 21, 2014--The Committee to Protect
Journalists condemns the shutting down of Assandi-Times,
the last remaining independent newspaper in Kazakhstan. A court in Almaty today
declared the weekly a structural part of banned newspaper Respublika, three weeks after court
marshals raidedAssandi-Times'
offices, ordered the journalists to stop working, tried to force the staff out
and seal the premises, and confiscated the paper's archives.

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Coverage of street demonstrations is an exceptionally dangerous assignment, with journalists subject to assaults, obstruction, detention, raids, threats, censorship orders, and confiscation or destruction of equipment. This report is one in a series of three by Getty photographers who documented for CPJ their recent experiences covering protests and shared their photographs.

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New
York, April 17, 2014--The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns a brutal
attack on an editor in Ukraine and calls on authorities to conduct a thorough
investigation and apprehend the perpetrators. The editor should also be
provided with protection while he is recovering in the hospital, CPJ said.

More
than seven years after the murder of Anna Politkovskaya, the prominent Novaya Gazeta journalist, a jury is
hearing the case against five defendants in the killing. The suspects were
first announced in 2011, but proceedings did not begin until July 2013, amid controversy. Three of the current defendants
were earlier acquitted of Politkovskaya's murder in a 2009 trial.

Coverage of street demonstrations is an exceptionally dangerous assignment, with journalists subject to assaults, obstruction, detention, raids, threats, censorship orders, and confiscation or destruction of equipment. This report is one in a series of three by Getty photographers who documented for CPJ their recent experiences covering protests and shared their photographs.

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New
York, April 14, 2014--Local and international journalists covering the volatile situation
in eastern Ukraine have been harassed, attacked, detained, and had their
equipment seized, according to news reports and regional press freedom groups.

New
York, April 11, 2014--The Committee to Protect Journalists congratulates Turkish
investigative journalist and book author Ahmet Şık on being awarded UNESCO's
prestigious Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize. The annual prize, named after
slain Colombian journalist Guillermo Cano Isaza, honors a journalist or
organization that "has made an outstanding contribution to the defense of press
freedom." Şık will receive the award on May 2 at UNESCO's headquarters in Paris,
as part of the UNESCO celebrations for World Press Freedom Day.

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New
York, April 9, 2014--The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned by reports
that Ukrainian border guards have denied entry to the country
to several Russian
journalists
over the past few days. Reports say that journalists with the newly reshuffled
RIA Novosti news agency, TV channels Rossiya and Russia Today, the business
daily Kommersant, and Forbes-Russia magazine have all been turned down at the border.

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Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan: We are writing to express our concern about the Turkish government's recent steps to restrict the independent Turkish media. In the recent past, your country was hailed as a model for a region aspiring for freedom, democracy, and tolerance. But today Turkey is being criticized as a country that is drifting away from the principles and practices that define true democracy.

Phoenix, April 8, 2014--The
Committee to Protect Journalists hails today's decision by
the European Court of Justice invalidating the European Union's mandatory data
retention directive.
The court found that the indiscriminate collection of metadata poses a
"particularly serious" and disproportional interference with the right to
privacy. Mass metadata surveillance is "likely to generate in the minds of the
persons concerned the feeling that their private lives are the subject of
constant surveillance," the court said.

New
York, April 3, 2014--An independent paper, the Assandi Times, was
suspended indefinitely on Tuesday, according to news reports. The Committee to
Protect Journalists condemns recent measures taken by Kazakh authorities to
shut down independent news outlets in the country.

Morocco's
inclination for wielding terrorism accusations against journalists and news
outlets who report on extremist groups has extended to Spain, where authorities
are investigating El País newspaper
and one of its journalists at the behest of the Moroccan government.

A CPJ delegation traveled to Pakistan this month and met
with high-level Pakistani officials including Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who pledged
to continue to expand Pakistan's media freedoms and address the insecurity
plaguing the country's journalists.

Two Spanish journalists were freed after being held captive in
Syria for more than six months, according to news reports. The journalists--Javier
Espinosa and Ricardo Garcia Vilanova--are back in Spain,
according to news
sources.

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New
York, March 28, 2014--Authorities should drop all charges against a Kazakh
journalist who has been accused of libel in connection with a story she has
denied writing, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. If convicted,
Natalya Sadykova faces up to three years in jail under Kazakhstan's criminal
libel law.

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New York, March 27, 2014--The Committee to Protect
Journalists welcomes the release this week of at least eight imprisoned
journalists in Turkey, but calls on Turkish authorities to scrap the charges
against them and release all of the journalists jailed in the country.

In less than a week, Turkish voters will cast their ballots
in local elections widely seen as a test
of support for embattled Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who has faced
growing questions about official corruption since a high-level probe first
became public in December. Although many observers believe Erdoğan will survive
the current
political crisis , the prime minister's increasingly autocratic
posturing has given rise to questions about his long-term political
viability.

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New
York, March 20, 2014--The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned
about Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's threats today to close down
Twitter. The threats come only days after he vowed to shut
down Facebook and YouTube in Turkey.

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How would Robert Capa
and Joe Pulitzer have reacted to the law that came into force on March 15 in
their country of birth, Hungary? Let us guess that they would have been
stunned. A provision in the new Hungarian civil code forbids taking pictures
without the permission of everyone in the photograph.

Dear President Putin: The Committee to Protect Journalists, an international press freedom advocacy group, is gravely concerned about recent steps to restrict Russia's independent media. The measures taken over the past three months threaten to eradicate Russian news outlets' freedom to freely report and analyze news events.

New
York, March 18, 2014--At least six journalists have been assaulted, detained,
or obstructed from reporting in the southern Ukrainian autonomous republic of
Crimea in the past two days, according to news reports.

New
York, March 17, 2014--The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns a five-year jail term given today to Tofiq Yaqublu, an Azerbaijani journalist
with the opposition daily Yeni Musavat, and calls on authorities to
overturn the verdict on appeal. Yaqublu, who was convicted of "organizing
mass disorder," was arrested in January 2013
in connection with anti-government protests in the town of Ismayilli. He was
covering the protests at the time of his arrest, his colleagues said. The
journalist is appealing the verdict.

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New York, March 13, 2014--The Committee to Protect
Journalists is alarmed by the blocking
today of independent and pro-opposition news websites in Russia, including Ezhednevny Zhurnal, Grani, Kasparov, and the
website of the liberal radio station Ekho Moskvy. The popular blog of
anti-corruption activist Aleksei
Navalny and the personal blogging platform LiveJournal were also blocked.

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New
York, March 13, 2014--Journalists covering the ongoing crisis in the southern
Ukrainian autonomous republic of Crimea continue to be
detained, harassed, and obstructed, according to news reports. The
Committee to Protect Journalists calls on all sides of the crisis to allow journalists
to report freely on the events in Crimea and Ukraine.

New
York, March 12, 2014--The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns a decree by
Ukraine's National Council on Television and Radio Broadcasting to cable and
satellite providers on Tuesday to cut off the transmission
of Russian state-controlled TV stations in the country. The order, which was
immediately enforced, appears to be a response to Crimean authorities replacing the
transmissions
of Ukrainian and independent local TV stations last week with broadcasts from
state-controlled Russian TV channels.

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New
York, March 11, 2014--The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the release
this week of five Turkish journalists who were imprisoned after being
sentenced to jailin connection with the controversial Ergenekon case. Three of the
journalists--Yalçın Küçük, Deniz Yıldırım, and Merdan Yanardağ--were convicted
because of their work, according to CPJ research. In the cases of Tuncay Özkan
and Hikmet Çiçek, CPJ had not been able to establish a connection.

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New York, March 11, 2014--The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns
today's fatal shooting of an international journalist in Afghanistan's capital,
Kabul, and calls on authorities to ensure the perpetrators are held
responsible. The shooting comes amid mounting risks for foreigners in Kabul.

Two unidentified men approached Nils Horner, 51, in Kabul's diplomatic district this morning, according to a New York Times report citing Col. Najibullah Samsour, a senior police official. One of the assailants shot Horner in the head at close range, and then both men fled the scene, the report said.

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New
York, March 11, 2014--Two reporters were detained by armed men in the autonomous
republic of Crimea, in southern Ukraine, while other journalists have reported
being assaulted covering the crisis and their equipment damaged or seized,
according to news reports. More than a dozen broadcasters have also been
censored, the reports said.

Today,
the U.N. Human Rights Committee begins its two-day review of Kyrgyzstan's
compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. By ratifying
the treaty in October 1994, Kyrgyz authorities pledged to enforce internationally
recognized provisions regarding the protection of human rights, and freedom of
expression, in their country.

New York, March 7, 2014--The Committee to Protect Journalists
is concerned by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's threats
to shut down YouTube and Facebook in order to, in the premier's words, prevent
the negative impact of the Internet on society.

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New York, March 6, 2014--Crimean authorities should immediately restore broadcasting in the region by the independent Ukraine television stations Channel 5 and Channel 1+1, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

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New
York, March 3, 2014--Authorities in the autonomous republic of Crimea in
southern Ukraine should ensure that media outlets and independent journalists are
allowed to report on the political crisis in the region without being censored
or harassed, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

Late
last month, as thousands of international journalists prepared to descend on
Sochi to cover the Winter Olympics, the Kremlin resorted to using a controversy
to silence a critical television station. A direct move to shut down the
station would have been too blunt--particularly at a time when all eyes were on
Russia--so authorities resorted to exploiting a producer's blunder, blowing it
out of proportion, and pushing a third party to do their bidding. This is what
happened.

New
York, February 25, 2014--The shutdown order issued by a district court in Almaty
against the independent weekly newspaper Pravdivaya
Gazeta is yet another example of Kazakhstan's determination to gag
independent voices in the country, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today,
adding that the verdict should be overturned on appeal.

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New
York, February 21, 2014--The Committee to Protect Journalists is
gravely concerned by the official harassment of investigative journalist
Khadija Ismayilova, who is being criminally investigated in Baku in apparent
retaliation for her reporting on government corruption. Ismayilova works for
the Azerbaijani service of the U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

Covering street violence is one thing. Covering gunfire is another.
This week, firearms were unexpectedly introduced into ongoing clashes between
protesters and police in two parts of the world, raising the threat level faced
by journalists trying to cover events.

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New
York, February 19, 2014--The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply troubled
by the murder of a journalist and reports that pro-government groups are
targeting journalists covering nationwide protests in Ukraine. The demonstrations
have left at least 26 people dead and
several hundred injured, including journalists, according to news reports.

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New York, February 19, 2014--The
Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned by today's ruling by the
U.K. High Court that said David Miranda was lawfully detained under
antiterrorism legislation at Heathrow airport last summer.

Each year, members of the Global Coordinating Committee of
Press Freedom Organizations gather to discuss threats to journalists around the
world and plan action. Usually, we focus on frontline countries where
journalists face life and death issues. But as our annual meeting took place in
London this year, we couldn't help but notice the emerging threats to press
freedom in the United
Kingdom, which range from pressure
applied to the Guardian in
response to its reporting on the Snowden leaks to the royal charter that seeks
to impose ethical
standards on the print media in the aftermath
of the phone hacking scandal.

The
Committee to Protect Journalists this week joined a campaign spearheaded by
Human Rights Watch and Uzbek human rights defenders urging Czech President Milos
Zeman to cancel Uzbek dictator Islam Karimov's visit to Prague. Zeman had invited Karimov
to visit
this month despite the Central Asian leader's notorious intolerance to freedom
of the press and freedom of expression, and Uzbekistan's abysmal human rights
record, which includes the Andijan massacre of May 2005.

Front-line reports and analytical essays by CPJ experts cover an array of topics of critical importance to journalists. Governments store transactional data and the content of journalists' communications. Media and money engage in a tug of war, with media owners reluctant to draw China's disfavor and advertisers able to wield surprising clout. In Syria, journalists are determined to distribute the news amid the chaos of conflict. In Vietnam, the government makes a heavy-handed bid to bring the Internet under control. And globally, eliminating witnesses has become an all too easy method of stymying justice when journalists are assassinated.

The authoritarian regime of Aleksandr Lukashenko made a few concessions this year while trying to improve relations with the U.S. and the European Union. Authorities reversed their repressive stance in several high-profile cases, including dropping criminal defamation charges against one journalist and allowing Irina Khalip, a reporter serving a suspended jail term, to travel outside Belarus. The KGB also announced that it would not file charges against a journalist who was accused of complicity in an illegal border crossing in what became known as the "teddy bear case." Critics of the government warned the EU that Lukashenko was not implementing liberal reforms but merely trading "hostages" in exchange for the EU's easing of political and economic sanctions. Reports by a local press freedom group, the Belarusian Association of Journalists, supported the accusations: Authorities continued to harass Khalip, detained independent journalists, and denied accreditation to critical broadcasters and several local journalists. A court declared that a press photo album contained extremist materials and ordered it destroyed. Lukashenko instructed KGB's digital arm, the Operative Analytical Center, to intensify its control over the Web, saying that the media and social networks had the capacity to destabilize the country.

Hungary's record of press freedom and human rights deteriorated in 2013, resulting in calls from some European lawmakers to suspend the country's voting rights in the European Union. Authorities adoptedcontroversial changes to the constitution in March, including a provision limiting pre-election political advertising solely to broadcasters--most of which are controlled by or affiliated with allies of Prime Minister Viktor Orban. The amendments also curtailed the powers of Hungary's Constitutional Court by taking away its right to strike down unconstitutional laws. After news outlets tried to investigate allegations of government corruption, lawmakers introduced amendments to the Freedom of Information Act, restricting the amount of government data that individuals and nongovernmental groups, including media outlets, could access. In August, Orban faced criticism from press freedom advocates after he nominated an ally of his party, Fidesz, to lead the national Media Authority, which regulates all domestic and international media--including print, broadcast, and the Internet--as well as their publishers and service providers. In November, the Hungarian Parliament adopted the criminalization of libel, two weeks after the amendment was proposed by lawmakers.

In 2013, at least four journalists were convicted of libel in Italy, one of the few European Union states where defamation is still a criminal offense. In May, a Milan magistrate found three journalists guilty of libel and sentenced them to prison. In a separate case, a 79-year-old editor was sentenced to house arrest in October in connection with at least eight libel convictions against him between 2007 and 2012. The convictions were related to his articles and commentaries on public life in Italy, focusing on public figures involved in corruption cases. The independent newspaper La Stampa was attacked twice with explosive devices. Journalists continued to face threats and physical attacks from extremists and organized crime. According to OSSIGENO per l'Informazione, a local press freedom watchdog, scores of journalists received threats from unidentified persons throughout the year; several of them lived under police protection as a result.

The overall climate of press freedom continued to deteriorate although authorities took a step forward in combating impunity in one anti-press attack. Four individuals were convicted and sentenced to jail, and one more suspect was awaiting his trial at year's end in relation to an April 2012 attack on journalist Lukpan Akhmedyarov, but no mastermind was named or brought to justice. In February, authorities upheld verdicts ordering dozens of critical news outlets to be shut or blocked domestically on accusations of spreading extremism. As if unsatisfied by the ban, prosecutors continued to harass journalists with the now-outlawed independent newspaper Respublika and barred them from practicing journalism. Citing technical violations, authorities ordered at least three other critical newspapers to suspend publishing. According to the Almaty-based press freedom group Adil Soz, the unfounded and illegal ban on dozens of news outlets, intimidation of individual journalists, unsolved violence, hefty fines, and anti-press freedom laws cemented self-censorship among local reporters. During his June visit to Kazakhstan, British Prime Minister David Cameron tried to discuss these and other human rights abuses with President Nursultan Nazarbayev, but the Kazakh leader publicly told Cameron “not to lecture Kazakhstan.”

While President Almazbek Atambayevurged the state council in March to enforce rule of law and guarantee the protection of human rights, he demonstrated little political will to bring about such changes. Authorities showed no intent to revive the Uzbek-language media that thrived in southern Kyrgyzstan prior to the June 2010 conflict, in which clashes between ethnic Kyrgyz and Uzbeks left hundreds dead and thousands displaced. Broadcasting in the largest minority language remained limited--only one broadcaster produced news in Uzbek. While access to the independent regional website Ferghana News was restored by most Internet service providers, the Kyrgyz government failed to repeal the June 2011 ban that recommended the outlet be blocked in connection with its coverage of the 2010 conflict. As a result, fear remained that authorities could legally block the website at any time. In May, Atambayev signed a vaguely worded anti-extremism bill that his critics said could be used to target free expression on the Web. Three years after the 2010 ethnic conflict, injustice continued to impair press freedom and human rights. The Kyrgyz leader publicly declared his commitment to revisit the case of imprisoned reporter Azimjon Askarov, but no action followed: Prosecutors failed to investigate the case even after new evidence emerged in Askarov's defense.

Though a new media bill was signed into law, the legislation failed to decriminalize insulting the president or alleviate other repressive measures, and had no immediate effect on the climate of press freedom ahead of the November presidential vote. To pave the way for a smooth re-election of Emomali Rahmon to a fourth term in office, authorities continued to gag critical voices by using a set of repressive tactics: intimidation of journalists by security services, denial of accreditation, and exhaustive litigation. The state communications agency ordered Internet service providers to block access to news websites and social networking sites, including Facebook and YouTube. Two independent regional broadcasters accused the authorities of jamming their satellite signal at least three times during the year. In November, Rahmon was declared a winner of another seven-year term in office; his rival quit the race, citing obstruction by the elections commission.

For the second year in a row, Turkey was the world's leading jailer of the press, with 40 journalists behind bars, according to CPJ's annual prison census. Authorities continued to harass and censor critical voices, firing and forcing the resignation of almost 60 reporters in connection with their coverage of anti-government protests in Gezi Park in June. The government tried to censor coverage of sensitive events, threatened to restrict social media, and, in one case, used social media to wage a smear campaign against a journalist. Peace negotiations between the government and the jailed leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, did not result in the expected release of Kurdish journalists. Legal amendments undertaken by the government did not result in meaningful reform of anti-press laws. In March, the Turkish Parliament began examining a bill known as the "fourth reform package," aimed at aligning the country's laws with international standards. The bill, adopted in September, introduced modest advancements, such as limiting the scope of a provision of the anti-terror law—"making terrorist propaganda"—that has been used against journalists, especially those who had reported on opposition parties. But the amendments did not address one of the most problematic articles of the penal code—"membership of an armed organization"—under which more than 60 percent of the imprisoned journalists in Turkey as of December 1, 2013, were charged. The jailing of journalists, the conflation of criticism with terrorism, and the government's heated anti-press rhetoric, which emboldened prosecutors to go after critics, marred Turkey's press freedom record and thwarted its aspirations to be regarded as a regional leader and democratic model.

Despite its status as the 2013 chairman of the human rights and security agency the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, Ukraine did little to promote press freedom in the region. Local reporters expressed doubt about the editorial independence of news outlets, as the owners of a critical broadcaster and a large media holding were replaced amid controversy. Several journalists also reported being threatened or harassed in connection with their coverage. At least 101 journalists were assaulted during the year, with police accused of participating in several of the attacks, local press freedom groups reported. In May, two journalists were attacked in front of police officers who failed to intervene. The official inaction spurred local demonstrations and an international outcry, leading to the assailants being given suspended prison terms four months later. While the conviction and life term handed in January to the killer of online journalist Georgy Gongadze in 2000 was hailed as a milestone on the road to justice, CPJ and others continued to push for the mastermind to be brought to justice. At year's end, as the nation plunged into a weeks-long political crisis over the government's failure to sign an association agreement with the European Union, two other brutal assaults against the press triggered nationwide protests and an international outcry: On December 1, riot police brutally attacked and beat at least 51 local and international journalists while dispersing protests in the capital. Later that month, investigative reporter Tetyana Chornovol was hospitalized and diagnosed with a concussion and multiple head injuries after being violently assaulted by at least three men.

The United Kingdom's tradition of an unfettered news media was marred by several developments in 2013. Parliamentary debate over recommendations from the 2012 Leveson Inquiry to address unethical behavior by media concluded with the creation of a royal charter that critics feared would enable political interference in press regulation and set a bad example for oppressive governments worldwide. A counterproposal by several newspaper leaders giving more power to the industry was rejected by the government, but publishers stalled execution of the official plan by creating a "tough" independent regulator. Though a bill to give police and security services greater ability to monitor Internet use—labeled the "snooper's charter" by its critics—was shelved, there were repeated revelations of mass surveillance by the U.S. and U.K. governments. The destruction of Guardian hard drives, the detention of David Miranda (who assisted the newspaper's coverage of documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden) and a parliamentary grilling of Editor-in-Chief Alan Rusbridger raised concerns internationally over intimidation of the press. Several journalists received threats from sectarian groups in Northern Ireland, and the 12-year-old unsolved murder of crime reporter Martin O'Hagan was set back when the prosecution announced that testimony of a key witness could not serve as evidence. In a positive development, the long-awaited Defamation Act reforming the U.K.'s plaintiff-friendly libel laws came into being.

Following an established trend, authoritarian Uzbek leader Islam Karimov promised to address journalists' concerns but did not follow through by ending the repressive climate for the press in the country. The decades-long harassment against government critics has virtually wiped out the media landscape, forcing the domestic and international community to rely on rumors or leaked diplomatic cables to get information on topics including the aging leader's health or his reaction to international events. At least four journalists remained in jail in late 2013, where they were allegedly tortured and denied appropriate medical care. Human rights activists, including those in exile, also faced official harassment and prosecution after reporting on corruption and abuses in Uzbekistan. One exiled human rights activist, Nadezhda Atayeva, was sentenced to seven years in absentia on embezzlement charges after reporting on human rights abuses. One journalist, Sergei Naumov, was jailed on fabricated charges of hooliganism just days after an Uzbek official denied jailing critics and assured the U.N. Human Rights Council that authorities were complying with international human rights standards. But this soon became hard to verify: Citing official obstruction to its work, the International Committee of the Red Cross publicly announced in April that it had terminated visits to Uzbek prisons.

Today, a broad coalition of technology
companies, human rights organizations, political groups, and others will take to
the Web and to the streets
to protest mass surveillance. The mobilization, known as "The Day We Fight
Back," honors activist and technologist Aaron
Swartz, who passed away just over a year ago. Throughout the day, the
campaign will encourage individuals to contact their representatives, pressure
their employers, and march for an end to government surveillance practices that
sweep up huge amounts of data, often indiscriminately.

Nestled between Croatia's Dalmatian coast
and Albania, the small state of Montenegro (14,000 square kilometers, 630,000
inhabitants) evokes images of sandy beaches, pristine lakes, and gorgeous mountains.
The wild beauty advertised by its savvy tourist board, however, looks more like
the Wild West for the Montenegrin press. In the past weeks a number of violent
attacks against critical journalists have rocked the country.

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San Francisco, February 7, 2014--The Committee to Protect
Journalists is deeply troubled by a report that a potential operation by the British
intelligence agency Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) involved
covert surveillance of reporters' communications. GCHQ sought to use journalists
to pass both information and disinformation to intelligence targets, according to documents taken from the National Security Agency by Edward Snowden and obtained
by NBC News.

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San Francisco, February 6,
2014--The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Turkish President Abdullah
Gül to veto the Internet
bill passed Wednesday by the Turkish
Parliament. The bill would grant the Turkish government unprecedented
control over the Internet by allowing Web pages to be blocked without a court
order, requiring mandatory data retention by Internet Service Providers, and
authorizing the government to seize user data on demand, all without meaningful
procedural safeguards.

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New York, February 5, 2014--At least two international journalists
reported being abducted and beaten while covering protests in Ukraine on
Friday, according to news reports. The attack comes as two local press freedom
groups each reported that more than 100 journalists have been attacked or
briefly detained since the nationwide protests began in late November.

The
Turkish parliament is on the verge of voting on radical censorship measures
that, if approved, would allow the government to block individual URLs without
prior judicial review, mandate Internet data retention for periods of up to two
years, and consolidate Internet Service Providers (ISPs) into a single
association, among other changes. If passed, the amendments to Turkey's already restrictive Internet law would compound a dismal record on
press freedom in the country, which is the leading jailer of journalists worldwide.
Unsurprisingly, the proposed amendments are causing outrage among free
expression activists and journalists in Turkey and around the world.

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Today CPJ, along with close to 200 civil society groups from
six continents, called
on the United Nations to put government accountability and independent
media at the center of a new framework for global development.

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In the run-up to the Sochi Winter Games,
official repression and self-censorship have restricted news coverage of
sensitive issues related to the Olympics, such as the exploitation of migrant
workers, environmental destruction, and forced evictions. The information
vacuum comes amid a generally poor climate for press freedom across
Russia. A CPJ special report by Elena Milashina and Nina Ognianova

New York, January 22, 2014--Dozens of journalists were attacked, and
their equipment damaged, while reporting on anti-government protests that began over the weekend in the Ukrainian capital of Kiev,
according to local and international news reports. The protests come as the
government has approved new legislation imposing restrictions on the media.

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New
York, January 14, 2014--The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned by reports
that veteran U.S. journalist David Satter has been banned from
Russia
for five years. Satter, adviser to the
U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and former Moscow correspondent for
the Financial Times, told CPJ that the Russian foreign ministry told him
to leave the country on December 4 and reapply for a Russian visa. But, he
said, on December 25, the Russian embassy in Kiev rejected his visa
application. The journalist is currently in London.

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An explosive device detonated outside the office of Mihailo Jovović,
chief editor of Vijesti (News), in the capital, Podgorica, regional and international
press reported. No one was injured in
the attack, but the explosion shattered the newsroom windows and damaged the
building.

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New York, January 8, 2014--The Committee to
Protect Journalists welcomes the news that three abducted journalists in Syria
have been freed this week. The Swedish Foreign Ministry confirmed today that freelance Swedish journalists Magnus Falkehed and Niclas Hammarstrom, both of whom were abducted in November, were
released. On Sunday, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said Turkish intelligence services had helped secure the release of Milliyet photojournalist Bünyamin Aygün, who had been held for more than a month.